Hack 1.0.3 is the fourth public release of Hack. Andries Brouwer published it to the (now-obsolete) Usenet newsgroup net.sources.games in July 1985. This version continues to be widely available today because of its inclusion in the *BSD operating systems.

NetBSD: include "games.tgz" when installing the base operating system; this gives you several traditional BSD games including Hack, Rogue, and Larn.

OpenBSD: include "gamesXX.tgz" (where XX is the version number, as in games39.tgz for OpenBSD 3.9) when installing the base operating system. This gives you some traditional BSD games, including Hack 1.0.3, but neither Rogue or Larn. OpenBSD has audited their source code and removed Rogue and Larn for being less than free software.

Others

Debian: 'apt-get install bsdgames' (HTTP interface); this gives you "all of the games in NetBSD-current are free in the usual (DFSG/OSD) sense". Rogue is in 'bsdgames-nonfree' (HTTP interface), Larn is not distributed at all, both for license reasons.

Dungeon features

The dungeon in Hack 1.0.3 has no branches; there is one way up and one way down. The first 25 levels or so consist of rooms, and beyond that, the adventurer encounters mazes. The deepest dungeon level is 40.

Dungeon level 30 and deeper are designated as "Hell". Entering hell without fire resistance, or losing it once there, is an instadeath. As gremlins and self-polymorph do not exist in this version, the only way to lose fire resistance is to take off the ring. These levels have only up-stairs, and the only way to enter is by level teleportation.

Other maze levels have wands of wishing tucked under a boulder in a dead-end square. (Yes, there's more than one.) Since NetHack 3.1.0, one version of Medusa's lair has a random wand in a similar spot, commemorating the former location of the wand of wishing.

The scroll of damage weapon acts as the modern scroll of enchant weapon does when cursed. The scroll of genocide acts, in all cases, as the modern blessed scroll; but most symbols refer to only one monster anyway.